"Top Gun" Cast Then and Now

A swath of Hollywood's biggest stars and moviemakers, including Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington and Ron Howard, paid their immediate respects to Scott viastatements and Twitter--but we imagine that a larger memorial for the wide-ranging circle Scott cultivated throughout his life will come as good news for those who counted him as a friend, colleague or inspiration.

Scott jumped to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, Calif., shortly before 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. Contact information was found in his car and authorities found an apparent suicide note--the contents of which have not been released--in his office.

Answers to what, if anything, may have been physically ailing Scott could be weeks away, pending the result of further testing following Monday's autopsy.

The 68-year-old filmmaker and TV producer's family firmly denied a report that he had terminal brain cancer and a coroner's spokesman says that no visible traces of cancer were found in Scott's brain. No relation has commented on an old friend of Scott's remark to NBC News that he suffered from depression.